Alaska’s Ring Of Fire Meadery Closes

Usually in this column, I’ve got good news to report. Most of the time, I’m writing about new breweries opening, new beers being offered, upcoming beer events, etc. That’s not the case this week. This time around, it’s strictly bad news: The Ring of Fire Meadery in Homer will be closing this fall.

Rachel and Laurence Livingston opened Ring of Fire Meadery in 2004. Over the years, their meads earned many awards, especially at the prestigious Mazer Cup International. From 2009 (when the Mazer Cup was created) to 2012, Ring of Fire earned 10 gold medals, two silvers and two bronzes. In 2012 they earned a gold medal for their Tart Cherry Reserve (a semisweet dessert mead), their Raspberry Melomel (a dry melomel, or mead with fruit added), and their Kulani’s Big Island Mead (a semisweet mead). Obviously, Rachel and Laurence were brewing some excellent mead in Homer. So why close?

When I put that question to them, they said, “It has been a successful 10 years with the Ring of Fire Meadery and we really struggled with the decision on whether to expand our business or close the doors. As always, it takes money to make money and we just decided we did not want to go into substantial debt in order to expand the business. It was a risk we were just not willing to take. The business has been for sale for quite awhile but the right buyers have yet to come our way.”

As of now, Ring of Fire Meadery is still open, with the employees bottling the last batch Aug. 26 and a liquidation sale underway since Aug. 27. It is half price on all mead and merchandise at the retail store, not including cyser. There is a limit of 25 750-ml bottles per person, per day. The Livingstons have departed Homer, with Laurence taking a job as the head brewer at Sky High Brewing in Corvallis, Ore.

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